The Most Influential People on the Internet, According to TIME
Time Magazine recently released their unranked list of 30 people with the most clout on the Internet, looking at how many followers they had on various social media platforms, how much "site traffic" they got, and also their ability to generate news. According to Time, the list not only included famous celebrities, Hollywood personalities and politicians, but also those who became famous on the Internet because of their YouTube channel, blog, Instagram or Twitter posts.
The list includes 30 people from different parts of the world. These 30 people also use different social media platforms, and their success in a particular social network platform is what included them in this list.
The celebrities that were included in the list are Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakira and Jimmy Fallon. Shakira notably has over 107 million followers on Facebook, even beating President Obama and Taylor Swift. She makes use of this platform to promote her causes, one of which is pushing for children's health through UNICEF. Taylor Swift according to the report is known for engaging her fans directly, be it through Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. Last year, for example, she gave comfort to a fan who was being bullied through her Instagram account.
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There are more non-celebrities in the list and some of them gained popularity through their video posts on YouTube or Vine, the video platform that is popular among teens. One such person is the Swedish YouTuber Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg also known as PewDiePie, who posts videos of himself playing video games complete with "charismatic narration." He has 35 million subscribers on YouTube and over 8 billion views, according to the report. Teenager Nash Grier is also on the list for his exposure on Vine, where he posts six-second comedic videos for his 11 million followers, which is the largest following on the site.
Some politicians are also on the list, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who is said to be "the most liked world leader on Facebook," and "the most followed world leader on Twitter." Another is Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner with 32 million followers on Twitter and is called Twitter's "most candid and most controversial" politician.
The more notorious inclusion in the list is a "hacktivist" who calls himself The Jester. This Internet personality does not make use of social media but instead is known for hacking hundreds of websites in order to target terrorists and hate groups.
The Time report gives more detail on the 30 personalities.
